


Unlearning the Follies

by ishtarelisheba



Series: Better to Face the Bullets 'verse [10]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Ish promptathon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-27
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-11 14:33:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10467273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishtarelisheba/pseuds/ishtarelisheba
Summary: Despite seeming to feel a bit better, Belle notices that Rummond has had a few days of strange behavior. When he retreats to his hiding place, she follows to get the bottom of what's going on.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt - _Anonymous said: Does BtFtB!Rum ever see Belle with someone younger and realize that she'd be "better off without him" and slowly try to distance himself from her. Obviously Belle's not having any of it…_

Rummond had been behaving oddly, even for him. For two days he’d been withdrawing from her, and she couldn’t pinpoint why. He had been improving. His downswing seemed to be relieving, and little by little he was eating more. He didn’t seem angry. But _something_ had happened.

Belle turned around after breakfast on the third day of his strange reticent turn to find his tray abandoned on his bed and Rummond having disappeared. She gave him a few minutes while she tended Reyes and made certain that she could leave the ward, then went to find him.

He was precisely where she expected. She slipped into the storage room, locking the door before announcing herself and stepping into the back.

“Are you all right?” she asked when he didn’t respond.

Though he worked to hide it, Rummond was visibly upset. His eyes were rimmed with red and his breathing hitched as she sat next to him. She curled a hand over his arm, but rather than reaching for her hand as he usually might have, he drew away from her.

“Rummond?” she asked. She watched as his brow creased and he seemed to struggle with something.

“Wouldn’t you like someone younger?” he asked quietly, and when she gave him a look of bewilderment, he went on. “Why wouldn’t you want someone you can grow old with?”

Belle sputtered. “What does ‘younger’ have to do with anything?”

He fidgeted, looking down at his hands. “I saw.”

“What did you see? Rum, what are you talking about?”

“That boy who came onto the ward to see you. I saw. He was flirting with you something fierce.”

“Boy… Will? You mean Will.”

Rummond shook his head. “Is that his name?”

“Is _that_ what’s had you so upset?” She ducked her head to try and look at him. “You’re jealous?”

“I’m not jealous,” he murmured. 

“Oh, Rummond,” she said softly. “Will wasn’t flirting. He’s engaged, and to a very nice woman. That’s why he stopped by. He was in to have his eye socket checked, and his fiancée was waiting for him in the hallway. He asked me to step outside to meet her. Will has no intentions at all toward me, and I most certainly have none toward him. Though I can’t say the same for you.” She smiled, nudging her knee against his.

“Belle…” He sighed and shrank farther away from her. “I’m not jealous of the boy. I- It’s that-” Rummond quieted, squeezing his eyes shut for a few seconds. “You deserve more.”

“I’ll decide what I deserve,” Belle told him, reaching for his hand with gentle insistence. “I’ve tried the young man who was supposedly ‘appropriate’ for me, if you’ll only recall. It didn’t work out well.”

“And when one day you realize you’ve gotten yourself an old man who can barely walk or cling to sanity by the skin of his teeth?”

“Look at me?” she asked, tugging his hand over onto her lap and curling her fingers tightly in with his. “Please look at me?”

Hesitantly, a little at a time, he shifted his gaze to meet hers. It was a bit askance, but it was something. 

“I like _you._ And I want _you,_ Rummond. I love _you.”_ She turned, holding onto his hand as she moved to kneel. Her chest brushed against his arm as she leaned to press a lingering kiss to the corner of his mouth. “You’re what I deserve. After the misery I had with Donat, the man I want is the one who makes me happy, who makes me feel loved and as if I’m heard and as if I matter - and that’s you. You are what I deserve.”

He turned his head to look at her full on, and she could see the worry in his eyes. But he was being truthful. She didn’t see jealousy there. Only the self-loathing that he’d been torturing himself with.

Slipping her hands away from his, she lifted them to cradle his face and kissed him. She could taste the salt of tears on his lips, and it made her heart ache that he had convinced himself so thoroughly that she was worth more than him. She went on kissing him, slow and rather chaste kisses, holding him in contact with her more than anything, as though she were attempting to transfuse some light into his darkness. 

“I love you,” she breathed, remaining so near him that her lips brushed his as she spoke. “That isn’t going to change. I won’t wake up someday and have forgotten how _much_ I love you. It simply isn’t possible.”

Belle felt him relax enough to lean his forehead against hers. She stroked her thumbs over his cheeks, and after a few more moments, she felt his hands clinging to her skirts. She sat there, precisely there, with him for long minutes while his anxiety loosened its grip on him.

“You can knock off the ‘old man’ song and dance, as well. You are in no way old, Rummond. You’re aged…” she said before quite realizing how that likely didn’t sound any better to him, then quickly clarified. “In- in the way that a wine ages. More interesting. Layered.”

Also softer and more pleasing to the palate - but she didn’t make those particular observations aloud.

She could feel the gentle huff of his laugh on her face, and she smiled.

“Yes, ma’am,” he gave, and she was relieved to hear the life returning to his voice. “If you say so.”

**Author's Note:**

> (Takes place between chapters 71 and 72.)


End file.
